Open-Elevation

Open-Elevation provides a free, open-source elevation API that offers worldwide elevation data derived from NASA/USGS SRTM datasets. Users can query elevations via simple HTTP GET requests without needing an API key for modest usage, while paid plans grant higher limits and faster throughput. The service is hosted publicly at open-elevation.com and also offers self-hosted Docker images for private deployments. It aims to be an easy-to-use alternative to commercial elevation services.

Open-Elevation is listed with 1 API on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Elevation, Geospatial, Open-Source, and Free.

Open-Elevation’s developer surface includes documentation and 6 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.1/100 thin Agent 6/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-10-31 · rubric v0.25.0 · Show this score on your site →

1 API

Company Elevation GeospatialOpen-SourceFree

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-10-31 · rubric v0.25.0

Composite quality — 33.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 0.0 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 5.5 / 17

Access Clarity 13.0 / 17

Operational Transparency 2.9 / 11

Contract Governance 0.0 / 10

Discoverability 5.6 / 9

Regulatory Posture 3.5 / 15

Agent readiness — 6/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 5 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics could not be measured. We hold no machine-readable contract for this provider to read, so there is nothing to measure a write surface against. Excluded rather than scored zero: never-measured and measured-empty are different facts. Publishing an OpenAPI is what makes this facet — and several others — scorable at all.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

Machine-Readable Contract +18 pts — api_specs includes an OpenAPI document
MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Agentic Access Contract +10 pts — agentic_access artifact present (x-agentic-access), graded by author
Machine-Readable Auth +10 pts — a served openid-configuration/oauth-authorization-server carrying `issuer` (served), else the securitySchemes class in the provider OpenAPIs — bound (mutualTLS, DPoP, Signature) > negotiable (oauth2 authorizationCode/clientCredentials, openIdConnect) > bearer (http bearer, apiKey)
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0

11 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Contract Quality scores 0.0 — up to +25.0 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 32.6 — up to +13.5 composite points
Contract Governance scores 0.0 — up to +12.0 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/open-elevation/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/open-elevation to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

APIs 1

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Elevation API

Provides worldwide elevation data via a simple GET endpoint. Free tier allows limited requests per IP; paid plans increase limits and throughput.

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Open Elevation Plans Pricing

4 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Open Elevation Rate Limits

2 limits

RATE LIMITS

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Open Elevation Authentication

1 scheme

SECURITY

Open Elevation Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Scopes 1

OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.

Open Elevation Scopes

OAuth 2.0 · no documented scopes

0 scopes

SCOPES

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgentSkill

AgentSkill

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Other 2

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Hosts

Hosts

Vendors

Vendors

Source (apis.yml)

aid: open-elevation
name: Open-Elevation
description: Open-Elevation provides a free, open-source elevation API that offers worldwide elevation data derived from NASA/USGS
  SRTM datasets. Users can query elevations via simple HTTP GET requests without needing an API key for modest usage, while
  paid plans grant higher limits and faster throughput. The service is hosted publicly at open-elevation.com and also offers
  self-hosted Docker images for private deployments. It aims to be an easy-to-use alternative to commercial elevation services.
url: https://artifacts.apis.io/open-elevation/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: harvest:new-submission
x-tier: profiled
x-tier-reason: enrichment pass 2026-10-28 (modular-v1; was harvest)
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-10-28'
modified: '2026-10-28'
tags:
- Company
- Elevation
- Geospatial
- Open-Source
- Free
image: https://open-elevation.com/images/logo.svg
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/open-elevation-rate-limits.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: Hosts
  url: hosts/open-elevation-hosts.yml
- type: Vendors
  url: vendors/open-elevation-vendors.yml
- type: Documentation
  url: https://github.com/Jorl17/open-elevation/blob/master/docs/host-your-own.md
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/open-elevation-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://open-elevation.com/
apis:
- aid: open-elevation:elevation-api
  name: Elevation API
  image: https://open-elevation.com/images/logo.svg
  description: Provides worldwide elevation data via a simple GET endpoint. Free tier allows limited requests per IP; paid
    plans increase limits and throughput.
  humanURL: https://open-elevation.com/
  baseURL: https://api.open-elevation.com/api/v1
  tags:
  - Elevation
  - Geospatial
  - Free
  - Open-Source
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://open-elevation.com/#api-docs
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://open-elevation.com/#public-api
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://open-elevation.com/dashboard.html
  - type: SignUp
    url: https://open-elevation.com/index.html?auth=register
  - type: Support
    url: https://open-elevation.com/dashboard.html#contact
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/Jorl17
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://open-elevation.com/terms.html
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://open-elevation.com/privacy.html
x-coverage:
  state: unreadable
  reason: no-machine-readable-spec
  detail: Open‑Elevation provides a public GET endpoint at https://api.open-elevation.com/api/v1/lookup but no machine‑readable
    OpenAPI or other spec is published.
  evidence:
  - url: https://api.open-elevation.com/openapi.json
    status: 404
  checked: '2026-10-28'
x-submission-probe: 200, 2026-10-26
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-10-28'
  status: enriched
  artifacts_added: 10
  pass: modular-v1
  engine: identity=oss,contract=oss,surfaces=oss,docs=oss,regulatory=oss

Open-Elevation API — frequently asked questions

Does Open-Elevation have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 1 API from Open-Elevation, including Elevation API.

How do I authenticate with the Open-Elevation API?

Open-Elevation documents its authentication (1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Open Elevation Authentication.

How much does the Open-Elevation API cost?

APIs.io lists 4 pricing plans for Open-Elevation, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing Plans on this page.

Is the Open-Elevation API ready for AI agents?

Open-Elevation has a Kin Score of 33.1 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 5.8 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-10-31.

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